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    THE SCREW PROPELLER.*

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    SERMONS.f

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    Untitled Article

    524 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 2 , I 860

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    Professor Blaekie appears not now for the first time as a Scottish poet ; but , having- matriculated in a former volume , more closely connected with his Greek professorship than the present , now claims mastership in his vocation of minstrel . It is not a light thing that he claims ; not the mere merit of being a singer , but the honour that waits on the learned bard , one who can rule the spirit by which he is possessed . Not every one can do this . It requires habitual selfgovernment , and perfect control over the materials and the forms of poetry . The stamp of the cultivated man is on these pages . Not onlv have we Goethe ' s fine and difficult poem on the Metamorphosis of

    Plants beautifully translated out of the German into English blegiac verse ; but we have an original poem , written in German with accuracy and spirit . Again , Goethe ' s aforesaid poem is translated into Latin verse , and is accompanied with a constellation of original Iiatin ' poems ; and here and there in the volume we have versions from Horace occasionally scattered ; and in other poems classical allusions occur of that nice character which shows the scholar s intimacy with ancient authors . Let us , however , not be misunderstood , as if the work were a learned elaboration , devoted to the past , and swearing by heathen gods . Far from this , the sentiment of the present day and of Scottish nAtionaltity is most strongly pronounced . The ' first book of poems ( for the collection is divided into five books ) , relates to Scottish history and the reformation of religion . It commences with a motto from Burns" The solemn League and Covenant Cost Scotland blood , cost Scotland tears !

    But faitb . sealed Freedom ' s sacred cause ; If thou ' rt a slave , indulge thy sneers . " It is precisely in the spirit ofthese four lines that all Mr . Blackie ' s poems on this subject are written . " The Martyrs of Scotland are his unending theme . Paf rick Hamilton , Margaret Wilson , and Margaret M'Lauchlan ( under the title of " The Two Margarets" ) , James Renwickand Walter My In are his heroes and heroines . The last forms the argument of a blank verse eclogue , worthy to pair on with some of Wordsworth ' s pastoral tales . He has also " A Song of Cardinal Beaton , " whose assassination he justifies , both on the grounds of right and expediency . We think he is wrong in this , ¦ had of it

    There is much genuine poetry in Mr . Barmby s "' Poetry of Spring . " The poem consists of twenty-five cantos , of about thirty lines each on the average , and in these particular features of spring are described—some the picturesque , and some the sentimental ; but in both the beautiful is predominant . Mr . Sandarsis a new poet , but with a command of rhythm which marks him as a young writer of promise . His volume appears to be composed of fragments of a larger poem . We can therefore only guess at times at his meaning ; but we learn enough to see that it is always a poetical one , and that hereafter he may do something which the ' world will not permit to perish . c _

    are posthumous . They betoken a sincere love for the poetic , and considerable skill in the weaving of verse ; but the P romis « ^^ in them , and a previous version of Goethe's " Hermann and Dorothea , " remains now with the beauty of the half-blown vose ^ -incapable of decay or increase . Mr . Thurston ' s metrical narrative is not without . merit , but the treatment of his subject is immature , and his verse not always correct or melodious . . , . The verse-book of Quinton Bone is mainly occupied with one poem , called " Valley Farm , " showing much descriptive power and some pathos . The smaller poems are inferior . Mr . Hayes verses are marred by occasional carelessness . He has strength , undoubtedly , but seems impatient of correction . Mr . Hillers lyrics are mainly national , and are full of an American spirit , which will doubtless ommend them to an American public .

    and that political assassination , so far-as wehaye experience , lias only led to jiew difficulties that have deferred the hour of freedom . We think that Brutus , though " the noblest Roman of -them all , " made a fearful mistake ; and such , we think , was Shakespeare's opinion , who is not over-ready to-admit political excuses for crime , particularly that of murder . -His tendency lies all the other way . Thus , on the page of history , there is extant such an excuse for Macbeth ' s murder of Duncan * buHhe poet never once admits It into the dialogue of his sublime tragedy as an apology , and only once slightly and remotely alludes to it as a motive , dismissing it as soon as

    suggested" , The Prince of Cumberland ! that is a step On which I must fall down , or else 6 ' erleap , For in my way it lies I " Such an opinion , however , is evidence of Mr . Blackie ' s strong feeling on the subject ; and , indeed , the terms are strong in which - itrls-: expressed;—eardinal-Beaton * S' - ' -talcing-off- -was-he-tells-us , not a murder ; no , it was only " a just retribution for wicked deeds . " That it might bey yet a murder : for so Providence not seldom works . However , he further justifies it , as " being politically a ¦ wise act , " and this he also states , that " no impartial thinker can doubt . " Now , it is the impartial thinker who will naturally doubt of it ; and tlie partial thinker only who will be likely to form an extreme and one-sided estimate . " In the eye of Heaven , " exclaims Professor Blackie , " Beaton was a traitor and a murderer . He murdered Wishart , and if he was murdered himself afterwards , he Jaad no more right to complain than any other mortal who has been sheddeth

    made to feel the eternal justice of that text , Whoso mans blood , by man shall his blood tie sted . The talk , " continues the Professor , " about Law and Legitimate Authobity in such cases , may amuso the shallow and console the coward , but it has no meaning to the consistent thinker . Those who talk with a pious horror of assassination ought to bear in xnind , that when wolves in sheep's clothing exercise open force over the sheep , there is nothing for the faithful shepherd but to use secret force when opportunity offers . The magistrate has no right to bear the sword in support of injustice ; nor do cardinals enjoy any sacred privilege to dye their stockings purple in the blood of just men . " So far Professor Blackie on political assassination ; which we regret to see so justified , and by such authority , in days when again the fight of freedom is likely to be fought , and when every thing depends on the patience and prudence of the combatant . Any excess of the sort so patronised by pur Edinburgh Greek professor would , under present circumstances , be worse than a crime—it would be a blunder . His much-loved Protestantism needs not such over

    zealous and indiscreet advocacy . Truth has a language of its own , and in its lexicon theword '^ flaMinatidn ^ TA ' nol ^ o ' DeVfdundi ' . It is time that Professor Blackie should chasten and subdue the snore passionate tendencies of his muse , and find in the purity of the ideal appropriate subjects for imaginative clothing ; . For these , too , ho has the requisite genius and , we think , the ambition . " Cecil Home" contains some truly good descriptive and lyrical poetry . The writer has music and meaning- in his lines and stanzas , which , in the selection of diction and gracefulness of cadence , have seldom been excelled . Similar commendation may be bestowed on Mr . Fulford ' s songs , which have a spiritual signification that adds to their worth , and marks him as a meditative writer , who will exert a beneficiul influence on his reader . The poems of Mr . Winter

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    OUT of a hundred persons on board a steamer at any wno are there for pleasure or for business , how many ever think of asking , who invented the Screw Propeller ? and even were they all to put the question , it is doubtful if the captain himself could satisfactorily answer it . About an invention so useful and so new , however , there should , we think , be no doubt whatever . Far back in antiquity we are not surprised to find that the origin of a thing lades into uncertainty or total obscurity , but we may reasonably be not a little astonished , that almost within the recollection of everybody now living a great and important invention is a subject of dispute and error . We know that the nation has been benefited by the invention , that our trade and commerce at home and abroad have increased by it , but who is the individual who has personally profited as the ingenious inventor of the Screw Propeller ? t t answeredThe patentee is Mr

    This question ougho be easily . . Smith , and he , it appears , has reaped the honours and the rewards of the invention . But is he not the inventor ? Tftr . Robert Wilson says no , and his arguments in support of his own claim to the invention appear to be so strong and conclusive , that until vre hear both sides of the question we caii scarcely suspend our judgment . He says , " This invention , as the most suitable for propelling ships of war and other ocean steamers , I now for the first time publicly claim as my oww , and I am confident I shall be able to establish , by undottlted documentary evidence , that I not only invented , and tested in the sea before Committees of the Highland Society and Society of Arts , but at great personal sacrifices used all the means iHTnyT 5 o « vBT ; o ~ intW ^ long before Mr . Smith , the patentee , had even his attention directed to the subject ; and that the screw might have been adopted in' the navy as early as 1827 , to the saying of millions of the public

    We cannot follow Mr . Wilson through the process of evidence and testimony by which he establishes his claim to the invention , but must content ourselves with simply referring the reader , or any one interested in the matter—and vyho is not interested in seeingjusticedoneto those to whom it is due ?—to the little work upon the-subject of his claim . We mny , however , mention the singular fact , that the French represent M . Sauvage , of Havre , as the inventor of the screw propeller . M . Sauvage derived no pecuniary advantage from the adoption of the invention in France ; and he , within the last few years , became so poor that the Emjeror , having been informed-of his position , undertook to provide for him . However , amid all rival and conflicting claims to the honour of the invention , we think Mr . Robert Wilson puts forth the strongest .

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    TI 1 HE Sermons of which this little brochure is a keen and discrinu-•*• nating examination are no indistinct utterances , no halffinished articulation . The author knows what he menns to say , and he speaks out with a freedom and an emphasis not to be mistaken . He labours to make himself understood . The drift of his two Sermons is to set aside the idea of Atonement by Propitiation . He maintains that " there is not a word in the Bible about the punishment due to our sins being inflicted by a just God upon His own Son ; " thatChrist only " shared our sin in the senseof it , in sorrow for it , in a vicarious confession of it , and in the miserable consequences of it ; " and that God can forgive without requiring ; any punishment on account of the breach of His law . , ' p ' . >——»¦—m^——¦ —hm ^ w p———¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ imy ^ M i ¦ ' ¦ ¦¦¦ i I ^ m ^ m ^—^^ m » i ¦ i ^^^ m ^^^^^ m

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    * The Screw Propoller—Who invented it f With Illustrations . By Robert Wilson , Glasgow : Thomas Murray and Son . + The Atonement b y Propitiation . A Fragment of the Argument in reply to Two Sermons published by the Rev . John L&rwbllyn Davibs , M . A ., Rector of Ohriatoliuroh , Marylebone . By the Rev . Charles Hhbhrt , M . A ., Officiating Minister of Brunswick Chapel , Marylebone . London : Niabet ' and Co ., 21 , Bornera Street .

    The Screw Propeller.*

    THE SCEEW PROPELLER . *

    Sermons.F

    SERMONS . f

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 2, 1860, page 524, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2350/page/16/